The Swing

I pumped my legs in and out, in and out, going high and higher on the swing.  The warm, fall wind blew my stringy, blonde hair forwards and backwards.  I felt like an angel flying high on the wind.  I looked up at the sky, as I swung higher, back and forth.  I drowned out the noises of the other kids on the playground by the wind rushing back and forth past my ears.  I had no worries at this moment; just random thoughts that kids have.

A sharp sudden pain in my back jarred me back into reality.  I looked around and realized that the bully of the class had hit me smack dab in the middle of my back with a crab soccer ball. This ball is three foot in diameter and the hard hit almost knocked me off the swing.  I drug my feet on the ground to get control and stop the swing before I fell off.  I was sure I had a bruise, the size of a watermelon, on my back because it burned as if a hornet had stung me.

The bully pointed and laughed at me.  “My turn!” the bully said, “Get off now!”

I retreated the swing in hopes the bully left me alone.

“Hey!  Get back here!” the bully yelled.  “Get back here now and throw that ball and let me kick it as I swing, and you can keep getting it and doing it again until I tell you to stop!” 

My memories of the bully attacking another girl in the bathroom popped into my head, so I did as I was told.  I timed the swinging motion of the bully and throw the ball at just the right time in order for it to reach her feet so she could kick it.  After she kicked it far away, I ran to retrieve it and do it all over again.  Other kids on the playground watched us from a distance because they did not want to be next. 

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I told the bully, because I really did have to pee.

“No, you have to wait until I tell you that you can go or I will punch you,” replied as she was swinging back and forth.  “Throw it again!”

The teacher came over and watched as we supposedly played.  The bully gave me a fierce look that told me not to say a word to the teacher.  I obliged. 

I really had to pee.  This time I did not time it right and the ball did not hit her feet.  In horror, I watched as it hit her smack dab in the forehead.  Her head bobbled just a bit and she had this mean look on her face.  She tried to hide it because the teacher was there, but it took a lot of effort. 

I laughed.  I could not help it, I just laughed.  That was the first time I had ever seen someone get hit in the head with a crab soccer ball.  It was also the very first time that the bully could not do anything about it.  I knew I would probably get it later, but I laughed.  I heard laughter all around me.  

I looked around and all of the other kids were laughing too.  I mean all of them.  I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face.  I laughed so hard that I had to squat down to keep my belly muscles from hurting.  BIG mistake.  As soon as I squatted, I peed.  Moreover, no, this was not a little pee; this was one of those pees that lasted for a whole three minutes!  I thought if I could put my legs closer together that nobody would notice.  I was wrong there too.  I had cotton pants on, so the pee streamed straight through them and puddled on the ground as if I was naked.  

I looked around, still laughing, still crying and the focus was on me.  The kids were not laughing anymore, they were all looking at me with shocked faces.  I just sat.  I was already wet, so I sat right down.  Right there in the puddle of pee.  Right there in my own embarrassing moment.  I would forever be known as the ‘Eighth-Grade Wetter’.